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Talk:Federal Assault Ship/@comment-2061482-20160323090452/@comment-2061482-20160328101804
One last thing I'd like to mention, because I know some people will face this issue and think it's some sort of bug the first time they fly this wonderful bird. The gun placements on the FAS are a bit strange and sort of a con when it comes to this ship, but in my experience it's a give and take sort of scenario. I've flown a Fer De Lance and it has an amazing scale of firepower behind it and I only mention it because that ship has the most effective arrangement of weapons grouping I've seen on a ship. Pretty much ALL guns go off with anything in your sight, but that is not the case with the FAS. There are two large points on this ship but there is one large point on the top that is aligned just a touch back away from the dorsal (bottom) side portion of the FAS which is paired with the remaining two medium hardpoints. This creates a conundrum of maximum firepower, particularly when using gimballed weapons systems. What ends up happening is unless you have your target at the right distance away from you and always in the dead center of view, you will not have all guns firing. Instead, what you have is the large hard point up top only achieving maximum firing efficiency if you keep your enemy just above the waterline of your ship's view. Anything below that and you have the three bottom guns going off, but it is difficult, not impossible, but VERY difficult to sustain all four weapons firing, because what happens more often than not is you only get the one gun up top going, or the three bottom, and in rare cases, NONE at all due to the dead space of your weapons' attempting to stay aligned. The trick here then is to know what weapons to use when the enemy is above you, and then pitch the FAS up to let your bottom guns do the maximum amount of damage. This feels pretty weird at first but after a while you get used to the movements of how to engage your enemies in this method and you'll discover that the FAS feels pretty much like a cheater when it comes to dogfights. In another reply I'll demonstrate in further detail exactly what I'm explaining. I've not attempted using turreted weapons because of their dramatic reduction in damage, and in a ship this size, that is not beneficial and I would not recommend it in the slightest, especially with how maneuverable this baby can move for you to get into the sweet spots and dominate. In my experience, using something like a beam laser up top to burn down shields then the bottom arrangement being either 1 Burst Laser, 2 Multicannons ; 1 Burst Laser 2 Pulse Lasers ; or 3 Pulse Lasers going hot. In short, my theory in the FAS goes like this: "Pitch low to bring 'em low. Pitch high and watch 'em fry."